Foxes: cute little animals with beautiful red fur coats and a long fluffy tail. They are adorable and are so many people’s favourite animal. Right?

 

Wrong.

 

They’re a nuisance, the bringers of chaos. And they’re worse in winter.

 

Recently, many people have bought fox alarms and sensors that light up when detecting motion and scream to scare foxes away. The fox deterrents have been swept off the shelves as holes are being dug in gardens and bins are being overturned and rubbish is contaminating driveways and streets. It’s an invasion.

 

A fox invasion.

 

And there’s a reason for this. Fox cubs are born in spring and gain maturity in seven months – wintertime. This means the fox population is at an all-time high at the end of the year. Not only that, but food is scarcer in winter, resulting in more foxes scavenging and raiding gardens and bins for any food they can find.

 

So how can we prevent this? And which ones are most effective?

 

  1. Use smells to stop foxes from coming into your garden. Foxes have strong senses of smell and are known to hate certain smells, such as garlic. Try spraying garlic infused water around the garden to deter them. This is quite effective when done properly, but the smell can be quite strong, so be prepared.
  2. Tidy up your garden. Garden are drawn to overgrown shrubbery as they provide shelter and protection to them. By tidying your garden up, foxes will not feel as safe and stop coming to your garden. This is a good technique, but doesn't ensure foxes will stay away. It does make your garden look beautiful though!
  3. Use motion sensors. Foxes are easily scared animals and motion sensors use sounds and light to scare them, preventing them from coming into your garden. This is very effective and doesn't cause any mess. The sound can be disturbing sometimes, however, usually the sound is not enough to penetrate the house.
  4. Remove food sources by securing your bins so foxes can’t access them and make sure any bird food you may have is out of reach of foxes. This is very effective as foxes will have nothing to look for, straying them away from your garden. There are also no big cons to this.
  5. Stop foxes accessing your property by putting up secure fences and removing any holes there may be under fences. Foxes can also jump up to 2m high, so it might be worth putting up something sharp on the top of the fences. Be careful with this technique, as foxes can be injured, which we want to avoid. It can also be hard to find a sturdy enough fence sometimes.